Pictures from Our Baltic Cruise 2019

Post-Cruise - Mostly London

We arrived back in Southampton, UK, early Sunday morning. We took our bags with us and walked a ways to have breakfast where we did two weeks earlier and then walked farther to the coach station to head to London. We arrived in London a little before 1pm and walked to our hotel and checked in. Soon we headed out and visited the Royal Mews and then walked by Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, #10 Downing Street, Westminster (lots of construction activity), Big Ben (completely covered in scaffolding), Bodicia, and Westminster Abbey. We couldn't go in Westminster Abbey because it was Sunday. Then we walked back to the hotel and later had dinner at the SeaFresh restaurant where we had eaten before. On Monday we had originally thought we would take the train to York for a day trip, but changed our minds because were we tired and it bacame more involved to get to Kings Cross. Instead, we walked back to Westminster Abbey but there were hordes of tourists and the line to get in was hugely long. We had been before so passed on it. We walked across the Thames to the south bank and considered riding the London Eye but again, long, long lines and we had been before. So we walked along the south bank and stopped in the Tate Modern (even though we had been before) and also saw a number of other sites. We walked as far as the Tower Bridge and walked across and by the Tower of London (again huge lines and we had been before). From there we took the boat back to Westminster and started walking back towards the hotel along the river, passing the Tate Britain (not so long lines, we considered going in, but were tired and had been before). We rested back at the hotel and went to dinner at the Thai Pimlico where we had eaten before. On Tuesday we rode the Underground (they use an "Oyster Card", which you tap just like the DC Smartcard) from Pimlico to near Hyde Park. We walked through the Park, seeing the Festival grounds, the Serpentine Lake, walked across the Serpentine Bridge, walked to the Peter Pan Statue, went by the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, and ended up at the Prince Albert Memorial. From there we walked past the Royal Albert Hall, through Imperial College and went to the Victoria and Albert Museum where we were dumbfounded at how good it was. We had never been there before and couldn't believe the quality and breadth of the exhibits of all types. We have to come back to spend more time. We then went to the Natural History Museum which again astounded us (we had never been before). We were there only a short time and then took the Tube from South Kensington to Victoria. I (John) experienced something for the first time on that ride, a young women got up and offered me her seat...! I guess I'm getting there... We went back to the hotel, packed our bags for tomorrow's flight and later went to dinner at Grumbles, a favorite restaurant we have been to a number of times. Wednesday morning we got up at 5am, caught our pre-arranged minicab to Heathrow, got in and through security easily and had breakfast and relaxed. Unfortunately, as the flight was starting to board I had a boarding pass with the "SSSS" which meant I had to go through another very stringent security. But it went fine. I am writing this as we are about halfway on our flight back to the US. (Click on a picture to see it larger.)

Already Looking Forward to Our Next Trip